BLOOD OF OLYMPUS

anyway, trusting her emotions. From the echo of their footfalls, the space around them must have been
a vast cavern, but she couldn’t be sure. She simply went in the direction that made her fear the
sharpest.
‘Piper, it’s like the House of Night,’ Annabeth said. ‘We should close our eyes.’
‘No!’ Piper said. ‘Keep them open. We can’t try to hide.’
The giant’s voice came from somewhere in front of them. ‘Lost forever. Swallowed by the
darkness.’
Annabeth froze, forcing Piper to stop, too.
‘Why did we just plunge in?’ Annabeth demanded. ‘We’re lost. We did what he wanted us to! We
should have bided our time, talked to the enemy, figured out a plan. That always works!’
‘Annabeth, I never ignore your advice.’ Piper kept her voice soothing. ‘But this time I have to. We
can’t defeat this place with reason. You can’t think your way out of your emotions.’
The giant’s laughter echoed like a detonating depth charge. ‘Despair, Annabeth Chase! I am Mimas,
born to slay Hephaestus. I am the breaker of plans, the destroyer of the well-oiled machines. Nothing
goes right in my presence. Maps are misread. Devices break. Data is lost. The finest minds turn to
mush!’
‘I – I’ve faced worse than you!’ Annabeth cried.
‘Oh, I see!’ The giant sounded much closer now. ‘Are you not afraid?’
‘Never!’
‘Of course we’re afraid,’ Piper corrected. ‘Terrified!’
The air moved. Just in time, Piper pushed Annabeth to one side.
CRASH!
Suddenly they were back in the circular room, the dim light almost blinding now. The giant stood
close by, trying to yank his hammer out of the floor where he’d embedded it. Piper lunged and drove
her blade into the giant’s thigh.
‘AROOO!’ Mimas let go of the hammer and arched his back.
Piper and Annabeth scrambled behind the chained statue of Ares, which still pulsed with a metallic
heartbeat: thump, thump, thump.
The giant Mimas turned towards them. The wound on his leg was already closing.
‘You cannot defeat me,’ he growled. ‘In the last war, it took two gods to bring me down. I was
born to kill Hephaestus, and would have done so if Ares hadn’t ganged up on me as well! You should
have stayed paralysed in your fear. Your death would’ve been quicker.’
Days ago, when she faced Khione on the Argo II, Piper had started talking without thinking,
following her heart no matter what her brain said. Now she did the same thing. She moved in front of
the statue and faced the giant, though the rational part of her screamed, RUN, YOU IDIOT!
‘This temple,’ she said. ‘The Spartans didn’t chain Ares because they wanted his spirit to stay in
their city.’
‘You think not?’ The giant’s eyes glittered with amusement. He wrapped his hands around his
sledgehammer and pulled it from the floor.
‘This is the temple of my brothers, Deimos and Phobos.’ Piper’s voice shook, but she didn’t try to